NELSPRUIT – Mbombela Local Municipality’s existing bylaws have expired. Nowhere within the confines of the municipal borders is this more apparent than in downtown Nelspruit where street mechanics, drug merchants and hawkers operate their businesses without fear of prosecution. Previous bylaws prohibited this kind of behaviour and some instances were coupled with severe penalties including imprisonment.
“The new bylaws have not yet been promulgated by council, which means that currently there exists an environment which makes it virtually impossible for the police or any other law enforcement agency to enforce rules and regulations in and around the city,” said DA Ward Councillor Werner le Grange. “This makes it very difficult to control or prohibit people like the street mechanics or the hawkers in Bester Street from conducting the business in the way they do, simply because there is no bylaw by which to prosecute them.”
At a recent CPF meeting in Nelsville, Nelspruit SAPS station commander Brig Cornelius Thabthe expressed his frustration over the situation stating that the police’s hands are tied in most cases as they have no bylaws by which to disperse illegal gatherings as is the case opposite Lowveld High school.
Earlier this year Lowvelder and its sister publication Nelspruit Post, reported relentlessly on the decaying state of the Bester Street area in Nelspruit’s CBD. The situation escalated until a month ago when two people were wounded in a shooting incident on one of the business premises there.
On Wednesday afternoon Lowvelder received a call from a frustrated business owner in the infamous street. A street mechanic had removed an entire engine block from the bonnet of a Hyundai Getz and was labouring arduously at changing the motor’s head. “These guys strip an entire engine in the middle of the road. They leave big oil stains on the tar surface and damage the paving with their backyard tools. They don’t pay tax nor rent and in the process chase away our customers who are now too scared to enter this section of town. The police and traffic department simply shrug their shoulders and the council doesn’t seem to care,” said one business owner. “Why should I pay my taxes and work above board to keep my business practice legal and above board, when I’m forced to compete with these guys?”
In September the acting Municipal Manager, Xolani Mzobe promised members of the opposition party as well as the media that he would personally arrange a meeting between the Department of Public Safety, the police and the business owners in Bester Street regarding the street mechanic issue. It has been a month since this promise and still nothing has materialised.
“We have become so tired of complaining as our concerns and complaints land on deaf ears. What will happen when I decide to close shop and retrench all my staff members because of the illegal operations directly impacting on my livelihood? Will council only get their act together if that happens or if someone dies in this street?”
